1229 Southern Thailand's 'ghost war' - Salesians are working and praying for a different spirit
Subject: austraLasia #1229
From: Julian Fox
Date: Wed, 24 Aug 2005 23:55:52 +0200
To: undisclosed-recipients:;

austraLasia 1229

Southern Thailand's 'ghost war' - Salesians are working and praying for a different spirit

BANGKOK: 24th August 2005 --  A correspondent recently used the term 'ghost war' to describe the oft-reported insurgency in Thailand's deep south.  He means that nobody knows who the real enemy is or what their motivations are.  It is, of course, easily portrayed as Muslims versus the rest, and it may well be that, or it may not be quite that.  But we have Salesians in that area, and they tell us that things are difficult - and dangerous.  In Yala for example.
    If you trawl back through earlier austraLasia's you will know the reports on the good work being done in Yala by Fr Gustav Roosens, a long-standing missionary in those parts.  He is assisted by Fr Michael.  They have a school there run by the SIHM Sisters (Sisters Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary founded in Bangkok by Bishop Pasotti, a Salesian).  Because of the violence that is an almost daily occurrence in this area, some ten parents of children at the school have been killed so far. And teachers are becoming hard to find in the private schools, because if they switch to the government schools they are able to be more easily re-appointed to their home areas outside the provinces where the danger is clear and present.  The Salesians and the Sisters are staying put.  They are safe, so far, and remain close to their people.
    Tourists, of course, are abandoning an area where they no longer can feel safe.  Businesses close down and people remain indoors of an evening.  Ghost war it may be, but death ad fear are real.
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